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Stats That Stood Out: Redskins at Vikings

The Vikings kept their win streak rolling with their fourth consecutive victory of 2019, a 19-9 decision against the Redskins on Thursday Night Football.

Kirk Cousins was laser-focused against his former team and continued connecting with Stefon Diggs. Dalvin Cook's dual-threat ability came in handy multiple times, the defense forced two key turnovers that swayed field position, and Dan Bailey remained perfect on kicks in his long series of games against Washington.

Minnesota donned #PrimetimePurple uniforms, featuring the combo of purple jerseys and pants for just the sixth time in history, but the victory had a "familiar formula" that's been in effect this season.

Here are three stats that stood out:

1. Diggs featured prominently, plays fast

The Vikings were without Adam Thielen, but Diggs was able to make multiple big plays in totaling seven receptions and 143 yards, an average of 20.4 yards per catch. According to Next Gen Stats, Diggs averaged 10.4 yards after the catch per reception.

Diggs also accounted for a 77.06 percent of Minnesota's targeted air yards. Through eight games this season, he leads the NFL with a season-long percentage of 45.48 of the team's targeted air yards.

Diggs carded the three fastest plays by a ball carrier on Thursday, reaching 19.53 miles per hour on a 34-yard reception, 19.17 on a 22-yard catch and topping out at 19.02 mph on his 39-yard grab down the right sideline for a critical third-and-9 conversion.

Believe it or not, Cousins was able to match the top speed posted by Dalvin Cook. Cousins was clocked at 18.96 mph on his 2-yard scramble in the first quarter, equaling Cook's max speed on a 2-yard run in the third quarter.

View postgame celebration images from Thursday as the Vikings beat the Redskins by a 19-9 score.

2. Sure things

The 39-yard completion to Diggs was almost a mirror image of a play last week in Detroit if one Photoshopped Redskins CB Josh Norman for Lions CB Darius Slay.

According to Next Gen Stats, it had a completion probability percent of 24.0.

That was the least likely completion by a large margin. The next closest was 61.6 percent on the 32-yard catch-and-run by Diggs in the first quarter that ended with a fumble.

Cousins' aggressiveness percentage was 3.8, his lowest since a rate of 2.8 at Chicago in Week 4.

This is a definition of aggressiveness from Next Gen Stats:

Aggressiveness tracks the amount of passing attempts a quarterback makes that are into tight coverage, where there is a defender within one yard or less of the receiver at the time of completion or incompletion. AGG is shown as a % of attempts into tight windows over all passing attempts.

3. Time of possession in the second half and length of game

A Washington team that entered 1-6 against a now 6-2 Minnesota squad tried to take the air out of the ball and improve on its time of possession average of 26:39 that ranked last in the league.

The Redskins, led by former Vikings QB Case Keenum and RB Adrian Peterson, were able to do so in the first half (15:23 to 14:37) but still entered intermission down 13-6.

Keenum was unable to play in the second half because of a concussion, and Washington's time of possession took a major hit with rookie Dwayne Haskins, Jr., in place of Keenum.

Haskins' overthrow of Terry McLaurin just two plays after Washington had stuffed Minnesota on a fourth-and-1 gave the ball right back to Minnesota with 1:59 left in the third quarter.

The Vikings mounted a drive that lasted 6:23 and ended with a field goal by Bailey for a 10-point lead.

Minnesota's defense then forced a three-and-punt, and the offense drained another eight-plus minutes off the clock to salt away the game that lasted just two hours, 39 minutes (the shortest of the 2019 Vikings season).

The Vikings finished with a time of possession margin of 36:36 to 23:24.

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